Mayor to speak at White House immigration conference

Mayor Karl Dean and three Nashville activists are heading to Washington next week for a White House conference on integrating immigrants and refugees into American society.

Dean will speak at an event dubbed the White House National Immigrant & Refugee Integration Convening on July 16, his office confirmed. Tom Negri, interim director of the Metro Human Relations Commission, Eben Cathey, communications coordinator for the Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition, and Avi Poster, chairman of the Coalition for Education About Immigration, also plan to attend. Negri said he's attended similar events in recent years and expects President Barack Obama's top immigration advisers, if not the president himself, to be there.

Dean will speak on a panel called "Creating a Community-wide and Welcoming Approach to Integration," spokeswoman Bonna Johnson said in an email Tuesday.

"Thousands of immigrants and refugees from countries all over the world have made Nashville and Middle Tennessee their home, and Mayor Dean will talk about how that diversity makes our city stronger," Johnson said. "As part of that panel, Mayor Dean has been asked to discuss his initiatives that have made Nashville the welcoming city that it is."

Dean often speaks of Nashville voters' resounding defeat of a proposal in 2009 that would have required Metro government to do business in English only, and he'll do so again during the event at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which is next to the White House.

Nashville recently became the third city in the nation — following Chicago and Los Angeles — to make its public libraries official hubs for citizenship assistance for immigrants. Dean also created the New Americans Advisory Council in 2009, and with that group he later launched MyCity Academy, a seven-month program that helps new Americans understand and participate in Metro government.

Negri said the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Welcoming America, an Atlanta-area organization that works to promote a friendly environment for immigrants across the country, are organizing the event with the White House. He said the conference will include sessions on topics such as strengthening pathways to naturalization and citizenship and expanding economic opportunity.

The U.S. Senate voted for a comprehensive immigration reform bill last year, but the measure has struggled to gain traction in the House of Representatives. The White House announced Tuesday that Obama has asked Congress for $3.7 billion in emergency funds to "address the increase in child and adult migration from Central America in the Rio Grande Valley areas of the Southwest border."